Programs: Past Programs

Healthy Futures Project

The Healthy Futures Project is a project-based program on environmental health and justice for youth in the Pacific Northwest. This program fosters both scientific thinking and creative expression to inspire youth to serve as change agents for a healthy future. Recently, this program has begun to focus on educating students with learning disabilities about environmental health issues. The Healthy Futures Project is now under the direction of the Learning Disabilities Association of Washington.

Healthy Futures Project Documents

Safer Cleaning Products Project

Part of the Healty Futures Project, the Safer Cleaning Products project involved students at Langley Middle School in identifying, gathering, and distributing nontoxic household cleaning products in their community. Taught and led by ICEH's intern Kristin Hoelting, the project was completed in 2003-2004.

Healthy Schools Initiative (HSI)

ICEH's Healthy Schools Initiative (HSI) has been focused primarily in the Northwest on organizing two invitational Healthy Schools Roundtablesand follow-up activities to those Rroundtables.

Because of the importance of having school environments free from exposures that can undermine children's health and ability to learn and grow, HSI is also integrally linked to our Healthy Futures Project (at left), the youth, project-based environmental health program that has worked with teens through their school programs.

The Healthy Schools Roundtables

ICEH was approached by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 to cosponsor two Healthy Schools Roundtables in the Northwest in 2001, one for Washington State and the other for Oregon. Given the lack of comprehensive state-level programs that ensure children's environmental health is protected in schools, as well as the escalating rates of asthma and learning disabilities and behavioral problems in many school districts that may be related to environmental exposures, these invitational roundtables are intended to catalyze statewide efforts to create effective collaboration and comprehensive plans to protect children's environmental health in schools.

Five main goals for the roundtables include:

1. Convening diverse constituencies, including state agencies, non-profit organizations, and grassroots groups, committed to protecting children's environmental health in schools;
2. Highlighting a range of concerns – including indoor air quality, materials used in science labs and art studios, school siting issues, janitorial products, pesticide use, building materials, and food quality – that can undermine the health of children while they attend school;
3. Reviewing existing resources and initiatives focused in this area and discuss how we might use and coordinate these more effectively;
4. Identifying resource gaps in terms of data, programs and funding and determine how to address those gaps; and
5. Developing initial steps towards devising and implementing a prioritized state action plan for minimizing and preventing environmental health risks in schools.

Intended outcomes of this process include:

1. Raised consciousness and understanding of children's environmental health issues among school administrators, parents, agency professionals, health care professionals, and others concerned with children's environmental health in schools, potentially leading to additional resources funneled towards these issues;
2. Improved communication between public and private organizations as well as individuals committed to improving children's environmental health in schools;
3. An ongoing steering committee, composed of people working on various pertinent issues from different areas of expertise, charged to develop and implement a state action plan;
4. A clearinghouse for information on children's environmental health in schools that would be consistently updated and easily accessible.

Healthy Schools Initiative Documents